Tickle Mittens:Oh that little ripple? When the La Palma mega-tsunami wipes out the eastern seaboard with a 600 mph 300 foot wave the little curriosity you reference will be forgotten because everyone will be dead.

ArcadianRefugee:dennysgod: Seiche is the word you looking for. Guess where that term comes from....from a Swiss scientist when talking about how Lake Genivea sloshes back and forth, sometimes with deadly consequences.

So a seiche is basically a rogue wave?

Not really, different process. A seiche the whole lake actually moves from one side to another, usually caused by wind piling the water on one side then the water rushes back the other way, things like a landslide falling into a lake will cause them. Rogue waves are caused by a process where several smaller waves phase into each other causing a single large wave. This normally happens in oceans where you have a greater chances of waves from different directions meeting, though they can happen in the Great Lakes, especially Superior.

dennysgod:ArcadianRefugee: dennysgod: Seiche is the word you looking for. Guess where that term comes from....from a Swiss scientist when talking about how Lake Genivea sloshes back and forth, sometimes with deadly consequences.

So a seiche is basically a rogue wave?

Not really, different process. A seiche the whole lake actually moves from one side to another, usually caused by wind piling the water on one side then the water rushes back the other way, things like a landslide falling into a lake will cause them. Rogue waves are caused by a process where several smaller waves phase into each other causing a single large wave. This normally happens in oceans where you have a greater chances of waves from different directions meeting, though they can happen in the Great Lakes, especially Superior.

Ah, thanks. I understood rogue waves, but didn't quite get seiches.

Once again, nature gives humanity the finger and I find it fascinating.